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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27839566">What makes a monster?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterrun/pseuds/Butterrun'>Butterrun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Eating Disorders, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Manipulation, Emotionally Repressed, F/M, Gun Violence, Heavy Angst, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, M/M, Murder, Mutilation, Original Character(s), Past Child Abuse, Pre-Game Akamatsu Kaede, Pre-Game Amami Rantaro, Pre-Game K1-B0 (Dangan Ronpa), Pre-Game Momota Kaito, Pre-Game Oma Kokichi, Pre-Game Personalities (New Dangan Ronpa V3), Pre-Game Saihara Shuichi, Pre-Game Shinguji Korekiyo, Slow Burn, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trans Saihara Shuichi, also none of the main characters are doing the cannibalism, although youll have to wait for the comfort part, but it only sorta is, for kokichi, most of the characters don't even appear for the majority of the story, non-abusive pregame shuichi, non-abusive pregame shuichi/kokichi, none of the main characters are doing the violence either, saiouma is endgame, shuchi/kaede is temporary, shuichi's aunt uncle and parents, the first part really just focuses on shuichi, this is sounds really bad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:48:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,731</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27839566</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterrun/pseuds/Butterrun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end, they framed him as a monster. Perhaps not wholly inaccurate, if you asked his old classmates anyway. Although he’d always thought they were far crueler than him, with their thoughtless words and wild punches, not that they themselves were monsters for that, just humans, but maybe his idea of what truly defined a monster was skewed anyway. Would it be easier if they knew the truth? The whole story from the beginning, or maybe it wouldn’t have changed a thing. He knows both can happen, he’s seen it after all. </p>
<p>Now the question is, what side will you fall on?</p>
<p>or: My version of Pregame Shuichi, and the really kinda awful life he lived, that ended with him joining danganronpa. He's got issues but he's not a bad person in this!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akamatsu Kaede/Amami Rantaro, Akamatsu Kaede/Saihara Shuichi, K1-B0 &amp; Oma Kokichi, K1-B0 &amp; Saihara Shuichi, Oma Kokichi &amp; Saihara Shuichi, Oma Kokichi &amp; Shinguji Korekiyo, Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi, Saihara Shuichi &amp; Shinguji Korekiyo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I will be putting tw at the front of each chapter! Also, any overly violent scenes will be marked so you can skip them, with a summary at the bottom.</p>
<p>Tw -mentions of child abuse and blood (used as a metaphor)-</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the end, they framed him as a monster. Perhaps not wholly inaccurate, if you asked his old classmates anyway. Although he’d always thought they were far crueler than him, with their thoughtless words and wild punches, not that they themselves were monsters for that, just humans, but maybe his idea of what truly defined a monster was skewed anyway. Would it be easier if they knew the truth? The whole story from the beginning, or maybe it wouldn’t have changed a thing. He knows both can happen, he’s seen it after all. </p>
<p>Now the question is, what side will you fall on?</p>
<p>There isn’t much to say for the first part of Shuichi’s life, born during the fall and given a name that wasn’t his, Shuichi spent the first four years of his life learning all the wrong things. What it was like to be left alone for hours, the cloying scent of alcohol and how to help get it out of the furniture, and the sharp sting of a disappointed look when he mentioned he didn’t really like the dress they had apparently “wasted so much money on, you ungrateful brat.” It didn’t take him long to figure out you just smile and take what you’re given after that. For these reasons, among others, Shuichi never really liked his parents, and they didn’t do much to hide their distaste for him, so it was never a hard decision to make when they offered to let him spend the day with his Aunt and Uncle.</p>
<p>Needless to say, he wasn’t really shocked when one of those days he was dropped off in front of his uncle’s house with not so much as a glance backward, and he never saw them again, or at least not for a long while. To this day Shuichi doesn’t really know how to feel about it, well no he does know how he feels about it, he just doesn’t like to think about it much, so he ignores any feelings related to his parents. <br/>The next two years are the best of his life for a long time, filled with the warm smell of his Uncle’s cooking, haircuts and wardrobe changes with his Aunt, and that weird TV show they would all watch together, where he would always get shooed away whenever they figured out who the killer was.<br/> His Uncle was a detective, “a damn good one” he would get told later from strangers with regret shining in their eyes, and despite knowing the darkest parts of this world, he was kind. Sharp and strict when he needed to be, but kind and gentle none the less. For so long he represented everything Shuichi wanted to be, which he tried to show his Uncle at every possible opportunity. Like when he brought home a newspaper stuffed paper heart home for Fathers-Day, or how it was warmly referred to in their house as “Uncles-Day”, after all to Shuichi at the time an Uncle was something far better to be then a dad. Now Shuichi can’t think of his Uncle involved with anything close to a human organ without wanting to vomit, but that’s for another time. </p>
<p>At the time Shuichi was smart and curious, his teachers sending home beaming reports about a brilliant, engaging child. Reports that would make his Uncle shine with pride and ruffle Shuichi’s hair, which was the most amazing feeling to the boy who attempted to doggedly follow in his Uncle’s footsteps, as much as a 5-year-old could at least. Apparently that enthusiasm and the hard work was enough for him to teach Shuichi how to fire a gun properly, along with a few other detective skills, which thinking back on it, definitely weird, but the paranoia of those types of jobs can get to even the best of us, he supposes. </p>
<p>Those days were some of the best, filled with genuine joy from all sides, his uncle present and available, so easy to talk to and reliable. Shuichi’s Aunt bright and optimistic, shining with the strength she had from her love of the gym, which she would gleefully drag “her boys” to, much to the grumbled, yet fond, complaints of his Uncle. Which she would extinguish with the simple reminder that he had to stay fit to be a detective. And of course, Shuichi himself, who simply couldn’t contain the love for he had for life, even if a few bad habits lingered from his Parents. </p>
<p>This couldn’t last, life isn’t so kind and what type of story would this be if it did? There was no slow descent into reality, no time to slowly come out from his bubble, or grow up to realize that things weren’t quite as nice as they seemed. That his Aunt's obsessive workouts were a way to remain balanced and not succumb to depression, or the way his Uncle’s hands shook and eyes looked lost after long, particularly brutal cases. <br/>No, Shuichi was never so lucky, instead, he was ripped into the cruelest, harshest reality possible and left stranded in oceans of blood, told to figure out how to swim or drown and die a shameful death. For a while, Shuichi figured out a way to pick neither option, float on his back and only breathe when absolutely necessary, but that would only last so long before he finally had to make his choice, sink or swim? How could any 6-year-old ever be asked to make that choice, he didn’t want to make it, it wasn’t fair. He wanted to let someone do it for him, but even as he begged and screamed…nobody came.<br/> He came so close to sinking, he really did, but something, rather than someone, allowed him to see a glimmer of possibility and gave him the start he needed to learn the basic strokes that would keep him above the thick blood that tried to suck him down, and that something was the worst and best thing possible to be what kept him afloat. </p>
<p>Now it’s time for you to hear the first cruel step that needed to happen, for us to get our beloved ultimate detective to sign up for the 53rd killing game of Danganronpa.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Don't ask what's cooking</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I forgot to mention this in the first chapter, but this is like my second fic ever and my first for this fandom so sorry that it's so bad-</p><p>Also don't expect such quick updates normally, this is an exception, because I think this chapter is a better hook than my actual first chapter-</p><p>TW: This entire chapter is one big trigger warning tbh<br/>- Murder, Gunshot wounds, body mutilation, sharp object (Knife) mention, emotional manipulation, the implication of cooking people, blood-</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shuichi was on his way home from school after another fulfilling day he just couldn’t wait to enthusiastically tell his Aunt and Uncle about. After all, they had been told to draw their parents today and Shuichi had happily drawn the three of them together, boasting to his friends about how much more awesomer, no just more awesome his Uncle had told him at some point, it was to live with an Aunt and Uncle than with stinky, old parents. His friends had obviously thought this was the coolest thing ever and were totally jealous, saying how they wished they lived with a more distant and therefore cooler relative.<br/>
He was happily skipping up to the door, humming something off tune and slightly breathless after he had run all the way home, sneakily opening the door to surprise whoever was home with his slightly earlier arrival, when he heard the familiar sound of a gunshot and a far less familiar scream.<br/>
Panic and confusion shot through Shuichi, as he pictured his Aunt or Uncle on the ground with a bullet through them, he knew what that looked like from TV, but as Shuichi made his way into the Kitchen a far more horrifying sight awaited him.<br/>
First, his eyes landed on the gun, the light hitting it just right to draw his eyes, then he noticed the hand holding the gun and let his eyes slip up to its owner, who was looking steadfastly downward with the harshest most hateful glare Shuichi had ever seen, it was his Uncle, why did his Uncle look like that? Finally, the smell of blood hit, and Shuichi was forced to finally register the last thing in the room, what his eyes landed on….<br/>
His parents, each with a bullet lodged in their legs and twin expressions of pain and horror. Shuichi froze, he had no idea what to do, why were his parents there, why was his Uncle holding a gun? Was he the one who shot them, no, no he wouldn’t, but maybe his parents were trying to do something bad? His Uncle had always told Shuichi that he would protect the house no matter what, so that’s what’s happening right? Right?<br/>
The air in the room suddenly felt suffocating and Shuichi was silently gasping as his eyes roamed over the scene, again and again, desperately hoping it would change, that they would get up smiling and say, “did we get you?” never mind that his parents didn’t pull pranks, never mind that his Uncle would never agree to do something that potentially harmful, or at least Shuichi thought he wouldn’t up until now. </p><p>It never changed, it never changes, his parents gazed at his Uncle with desperation and tears in their eyes and his Uncle looked back without an ounce of mercy and Shuichi, frozen to the spot, watched as the world around him starts moving again, in the worst way possible.<br/>
His Uncle suddenly grabs his parents and lifts them one after the other onto the Kitchen counter, ignoring their cries of pain as he roughly drags their useless legs over the lip of the counter. Shuichi’s parents are full-on sobbing now, it’s loud, so loud, he hears his Uncle bark at them to shut up and they muffle their screams, hoping that compliance will spare them a fate Shuichi would prefer not to think about, although it turns out that their fate is something so much worse than what Shuichi’s six-year-old mind could ever hope to imagine anyway. </p><p>He watches it all happen through glazed eyes, simultaneously seeing everything in crystal clear definition and not registering a single thing happening. Because it couldn’t be happening, it couldn’t, so Shuichi stood and watched, desperately trying to prove to himself that it was fake, it was fake, it had to be fake. He couldn’t breathe, he sees his Uncle grab a knife, this isn’t happening, he watches his Uncle loom over his terrified parents, IT’S ALL FAKE! Then he hears it, the slight woosh that was telltale of an object being moved quickly through the air before… a sickening sound Shuichi had never heard before, which must be the sound a knife makes when cutting through flesh, Shuichi’s mind distantly recognizes, followed by the most earsplitting, agonized scream of pure pain probably in the history of forever. </p><p>A toe slowly rolled away from where it was supposed to be attached to his father’s body, Shuichi stares at it unable to tell where it came from because it couldn’t really have come from- *SHINK* that cutting sound again another scream, another part coming loose. Did all humans have detachable limbs or was his father just special? Shuichi wondered as his mind resolutely ignored what was happening in front of him. Unable to see as his Uncle cut more and more of his father apart, starting from the bottom and slowly chop, chop, chopping his way upward, never stopping not even after Shuichi’s father stopped screaming. Not until every last part of him had been separated into gory, bloody lumps. He was so unrecognizable that Shuichi wondered if it had ever been his father at all. It wasn’t he decided because it couldn’t be. Suddenly his mind registered the sound of desperate and pleading babbling, and it takes him a second to realize it’s his mother. </p><p>“Please!”, she begged, “I’ll give you whatever you want! Money, sex, anything, a-anything! Please just don’t, DON’T, I DON’T WANT TO DIE! P-PLEASE!” </p><p>Sobbing, sobbing, so loud.</p><p>And the cold, uncaring response: </p><p>“You already gave me the only valuable thing that existed in your pathetic, disgusting lives. Now you have nothing left to offer me or the world, you’re a waste of space, a waste of air.”</p><p>“ I-I don’t understand, please, what is it we gave you? Why are you doing this? PLEASE! I DON’T UNDERSTAND, WHY, Why, why-“</p><p>“What you gave me? The only good thing to come from you two pigs.” His Uncle punctuated the last part, by swinging down the knife right next to his mother’s head, making her flinch and whimper. Then in a hissed, hateful whisper, he spat out: </p><p>“Your son.”</p><p>“W-what?’</p><p>“Shuichi, you gave me Shuichi. The two of you managed, somehow, to create a bright and brilliant child, and yet like the ungrateful pieces of shit that you are, you threw him out as soon as you could. I was willing to give you two a chance to redeem yourselves by raising him, but you couldn’t even do that much. There is no longer a point to your existence. The world is better off without you.” </p><p>“N-no WAIT! I’ll take he-him back, I’ll raise him. I-I’ll do it right, I promise! Just Please, don’t do this, d-don’t, don’t!”</p><p>“Too Late.”</p><p>Then that sound again, that was slowly becoming more and more familiar to Shuichi’s brain. The first part of his mother, because it really was his mother wasn’t it, went rolling.<br/>
Everything was too little and too much at the same time, how could this just be happening in front of him, why was nobody stopping it? Where were the heroes that always save the day? Couldn’t Shuichi stop it, couldn’t he be the hero like his Uncle? His Uncle…. maybe, maybe heroes weren’t real, maybe nobody actually came to sweep you away from danger. They were all liars just like his Uncle. Shuichi couldn’t stop anything either, so he just stood there and watched, choking on his own whimpers and tears. The last scream rang clear through the air, then the final chop as the last part of his mother was separated, then silence. Deafening silence, cloying, painful and deadly silence, because at that moment Shuichi’s Uncle finally turned his head, his eyes caught on Shuichi’s trembling, crying form and-</p><p>He smiled, the same smile Shuichi had seen for the past two years living with his Uncle, just as kind and gentle, the only difference was that it was now smeared with blood. Shuichi choked back a sob as his Uncle took a step forward, knife still swinging in his grip, the smile frozen on his face. “Run!” Shuichi’s mind screamed at him, and he wanted to, he really did, but he couldn’t he was rooted to the spot unable to rip his gaze from his Uncle’s glinting eyes. Slowly his Uncle grew closer and closer before he stopped right in front of Shuichi, he didn’t say a word as he lifted his bloodstained hand and brought it gently down onto Shuichi’s head, ruffling his hair slightly. Despite the normally comforting gesture, Shuichi felt a weight like a pound of bricks suddenly appear where his Uncle put his hand, he could feel the sticky blood getting tangled in his navy locks and could only watch in horror as a drop of blood ran down his face from his hair, still not being able to move his body. His Uncle leaned down, in the same manner he always did when he was trying to comfort Shuichi, looking him straight in the eye he spoke in a gentle and calm voice:</p><p>“Hey kiddo, don’t say a word got that? This’ll be our little secret, you wouldn’t want us to get in trouble, after all, right?”</p><p>Shuichi, entirely incapable of doing anything else, jerkily nodded his head with a small sob, the statement “Don’t say a word” running through his head like a mantra.</p><p>“Good!” His Uncle chuckles as he stands back up “Then why don’t you take a shower while I go ahead and start dinner?” </p><p>It takes a couple of seconds for the question to register in Shuichi’s mind, the utter normalcy of it entirely unfitting to the situation, but as soon as it does Shuichi finds he can suddenly move again and timidly nods his head again before almost tripping over himself in his desperate bid to get out of the kitchen.</p><p>Shuichi turns around one more time as he leaves and sees his Uncle gathering the bloody masses of flesh and a pan, and Shuichi thinks to himself feeling incredibly sick, that he doesn’t think he’ll be eating dinner tonight.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is probs the goriest chapter of this fic, that doesn't mean it's the end of the pain train, I just don't have any plans for anything involving this kind of explicit violence or death in any more of the fic.</p><p>For those who couldn't read: </p><p>Basically, 6-year-old Shuichi comes home and finds his uncle has maimed Shuichi's parents, his Uncle then proceeds to cut his parents apart, during this he and Shuichi's mother "talk" (she's begging for her life) where it gets brought up that a major reason he's doing this is that Shuichi was left with him. Afterward, his Uncle sees that Shuichi has seen everything so he ruffles his hair and tells him "not to say a word." Before sending Shuichi to his room, stating he's going to make dinner.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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